Plymouth City Bus isn’t the only operator to launch a new livery this month. Rotala, the new owner of Preston Bus, has very quickly come up with something different.
When you consider it took Plymouth City Bus a year to settle on its red+red design, Rotala has devised and applied something fresh in just weeks. And although you may consider it looks average on paper, Omnibuses’ Northern Correspondent has seen it in the flesh. His view? It looks far better face to face and is almost majestic, thanks to the colour silver.
This new Mercedes Citaro is believed to have been heading for Rotala in the West Midlands but was quickly diverted to Preston. Preston Bus drivers will notice the build quality when compared to the East Lancs bodied Scania/Esteems
Indeed, at the heart of the Preston Bus deign is the colour silver. Silver’s been adding a refined elegance to new cars since the early 1980s but it’s rarely seen on buses. Over a quarter of new cars in any typical year tend to be silver. What better colour to attract motorists?
The new livery retains the recently introduced limy, lettuce green and it darkens the blue. The most interesting feature of the silver is that it sees the withdrawal of cream. Losing the buttermilk really does modernise the livery. Mind you, it’s believed that Rotala’s double deck Preston Bus livery will have more green (along the roofline) and replace silver with white.
Rotala has developed stylised “PB” logo as a variation on the pre-Stagecoach motif of old. It looks a little like a swirling pennant or eddying banderol being waved in the wind, though some might consider it has a cheap, child-like quality to it.Images and additional information by Omnibuses’ Northern Correspondent
24 comments:
I understand that the problem with silver for a livery is that it is very hard to match when panels need to be replaced.
Northumbria (remember them from the days before Arriva?) over came this problem on their livery by using grey on buses, but silver on coaches which, they thought, were less vulnerable to the knocks and scrapes of bus work.
Ghastly. Totally impractical, looks appalling. Who on earth came up with such a load of tosh?
The PB looks silly. Bring back the crest, even if it has to be modified because the operator is no longer run by the Council.
And "bus station"? Wha? Display a correctly-capitalised destination, with a via point or two, over two lines. Anything less looks lazy, or like this completely unprofessional.
In a word - yuck.
Silver is fine - look at the London Midland or Virgin train liveries - but it needs to be an all-over silver with a bit of colour - this is too crowded.
"Preston Bus drivers will notice the build quality when compared to the East Lancs bodied Scania/Esteems"
I'll say!!!
Ensignbus have been using Silver for years and nobody has complained about it.
The logo is not a Rotala invention - it was in use beforehand. But the close up shows that it covers no less than 4 separate window panes, and based on experience elsewhere, it is fairly difficult to maintain such styles. No doubt it will evolve to something more practical.
Crap, crap, crap. Clashing colours, doesn't follow the line of the design, tat plastered over windows. Total dross.
METROBUS have used silver with blue .it looks good.the rotala PB logo is naf however.
As is the "futuristic" font, which doesn't look futuristic. It looks like an attempt to be cool, and fails miserably. Which is interesting, because Diamond Bus (that's Rotala, right?) seems to have a modern yet classic scheme that works far better.
This one, OTOH, is crap. They might as well have used Comic Sans.
To say they're advertising the website on their buses, I think it's time for a new one - minus Stagecoach routes and the reference to a 'Preston Citi' network map!
General thumbs down for the Preston Bus livery, then! I cannot really disagree, and a comparison with the new Plymouth livery is instructive. The Plymouth livery looks much brighter, and I imagine it will stand out in the street much more than the Preston scheme, though it might benefit from having the lighter, brighter red at the front. The Preston silver seems to lack impact, perhaps, as Neil says, because there are too many areas with other colours that appear randomly scattered about the bus (in some cases, at least!). The 'PB' logo would probably suit a supplier or manufacturer of children's toys, but it lacks seriousness for a bus operator. I also share the dislike of logos, etc, covering windows - it's a bus, after all, not a pantechnicon, and the passengers want to be able to see out!
It's also interesting to compare with the Fishwick bus in yesterday's post. They seem to have largely retained their traditional livery and layout - never the brightest star in the firmament, but nonetheless it looks professional and has an air of permanence. The Arriva livery also looks reasonably bright - helped by using cream rather than white - though I understand that scheme is no longer current. The Arriva bus also seems to be developing something of a 'banana bus' shape at a rather early stage in its life - possibly the DAF/Wright combination is not so structurally sound as it should be?
I seem to recall Fishwicks are bound by the will of their founder to keep their bus livery the same!
Didn't apply to coaches which are more modern in their application.
Paul
No cheers for this or any livery that has vinyl on the windows -didn't your mother tell you that they are for looking out of?
The Plymouth scheme has been designed by somebody who has at least some sort of idea what passengers want - which is to see out!
No mention of the design agency involved.
One wonders how much input the clients have in the livery design process.
I keep thinking there is a large numeral 3 at the rear end.Bit too dominant,in an already busy design.
would look better with the dark blue carried on instead of the silver - just looks too fussy which is a shame as its certainly a bold scheme
Someone must have been to Mallorca on their holidays - Palma buses are silver and blue! See photos on a Spanish forum at http://www.anden1.org/anden2/foro/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1583&start=45 .
But the use of colours is better in Palma, and buses look better in the sun, which shines more there than in Preston.
Or maybe silver with a blue skirt, as used by VMCV in Switzerland. That looks quite good, particularly their more modern "lake water" version. Then add the crest and "Preston Bus" in a suitably modern but understated font.
Well at least its different to the liveries that everyone else seems to go for, although as stated above it is a bit busy.
Some operators clearly hanker after running vans as they insist on covering their windows with messages. Modern vehicles have large windows, but the modernity is lost when slogans etc cover them.
Might it be possible to design a livery that is sympathetic to the look of the vehicle and emphasise the looks, rather than seeing the features as an impediment to the design.
Fishwick's livery is vile in my opinion - I think it's my least favourite livery ever! The colours are disgusting and it really doesn't promote a modern look.
While they have that livery (and they are tied to it by the will so it should be for a long while...), Preston's can never be as bad!
@RC169: No, not a general thumbs-down. This is smart and distinctive, nothing like the lazy hack job done on the Plymouth buses.
Anonymous said...
"No, not a general thumbs-down."
Try counting the negative, or even 'constructively critical' comments above - they significantly outnumber those in favour of the new Preston livery. My case rests!
The original article is really rather misleading. The blue-and-cream decker is not representative of the last Preston Bus livery as the author seems to imply. The lime-green and blue components were introduced at least 4 years ago, as was the PB logo. The major change is in using silver against the blue instead of white, and removing the gimmicky "swoosh" design of the previous Preston Bus.
It looks a damn sight better than Stagecoach.
No, the blog author did not imply that the Olympian represents the current Preston Bus livery. Note the immediate predecessor livery does, however, also contain much cream, evidence of which is elsewhere on the blog.
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